34 BULLETIN 1222, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
bring them to normal size, some of the eggs, or even some of the 
larvae are removed so that the remaining ones may be sufficiently fed. 
To gain some idea of the immensity of the task of rearing a single 
larva it is necessary to refer to Table 6. Averaging the results found 
for the eggs and larvae of all ages, it is seen that on an average more 
than 1,300 visits are made in 24 hours. On the last day before cap- 
ping no less than 2,855 visits are made by the nurse bees to a single 
cell. On this last day before capping approximately 4§ hours are 
spent by the nurse bees within the cell. 
When these facts are considered, together with the time required 
for obtaining, preparing, and transporting the food, and the time re- 
quired for capping the cells, it is evident that the rearing of brood 
constitutes a considerable burden to the working forces of the colony, 
doubtless reducing the field work and also other inside labors. It 
follows, therefore, that any considerable brood-rearing during the 
main honey flow must reduce materially the surplus honey procured. 
Not only is the surplus honey cut down because of the reduction in 
the number of field workers and comb builders, but honey which is 
brought in is lost, since it is fed to larvae which usually develop too 
late to aid in the gathering of a crop. 
The foregoing statements are substantiated in practical beekeeping 
by the well-established fact that a newly hived swarm gathers honey 
and builds comb more rapidly than an equally strong colony which 
has not swarmed. The reason for this is now clear. All members of 
a swarm may be either field workers or comb builders, while at first 
none of the nectar brought from the field is fed to brood, all of it 
being stored or consumed by adult bees. Similar results are obtained 
by confining the queen to a single brood chamber just before the 
honey-flow, since this somewhat limits the queen in egg-laying and 
reduces the amount of brood to be cared for during the honey-flow. 
Caging the queen has a similar effect, although this introduces other 
factors which may reduce the amount of surplus honey that might be 
obtained under this system. 3 
SUMMARY. 
The attention given eggs and larvse of the honeybee by the nurse 
bees consists in visits to the cells for purposes of inspection and for 
work or nursing carried on within the cell. 
The number of such visits averages about 1,300 per day during 
the eight days from the time the egg is laid till the fully grown 
larva is sealed w T ithin the cell. 
The elaborated food on which larvae feed during about the first 
two days of the larval period is practically all placed in the cell with 
the newly-hatched larva soon after hatching. This is mass feeding. 
Soon after the second day another kind of food is supplied to the 
worker larva. This food contains considerable undigested pollen and 
is fed at approximately the same rate at which it is consumed by the 
larva. 
The fact that the method of feeding the worker larva is changed, 
for no apparent reason, after the second day, together with the ex- 
cessive amount of time spent in visits of nurse bees to the older 
worker larvae, suggests that there may be here a reciprocal feeding 
3 Phillips, E. F. Beekeeping. A discussion of the honeybee and of the production of 
honey, 457 p., 190 fig., front. New York, 1915. [See p. 282.] 
